1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plug connector including a mold case, for use with a wire harness or the like of an automobile.
2. Prior Art
In a prior art configuration, as shown in FIG. 10, a plug connector “A” attached with a cable of a wire harness or the like is constituted by a rectangular slender mold case 100, and a retainer 105 mounted to a rear portion of the mold case. A cable 106 has a plurality of core wires connected to a female contact of an insulating member 107 fixedly attached to inside of the mold case and led out to a rear side of the mold case. The mold case 100 is provided with a slit 101 at a side wall thereof, and a portion of a shield case 103 surrounding the insulating member 107 at an inside thereof is exposed to the outside. Further, an upper portion of the mold case is provided with an elastic claw 102 for connection locking, a projection 102a for locking, and a press portion 102b for releasing.
A fitting counter of the plug connector “A” coaxial therewith is an adaptor connector “B” soldered onto a printed board 108, and an insulating member 109 fixed integrally with a male contact soldered to the printed board 108 is surrounded by a shield case 110. At an inner space of the insulating member 109, a ground plate 111 to be brought into electric contact with the shield case 103 on a side of the plug connector “A” is attached to a side wall thereof, a lower portion thereof is provided with a guide groove 112, and an upper portion thereof is provided with a lock portion 113 by which the locking projection 102a of the elastic claw 102 is locked.
The cable attached plug connector “A” constituted as described above is inserted from an opening portion of the insulating member 109 of the adaptor connector “B”, the locking projection 102a of the elastic claw 102 is engaged with the lock portion 113 and is inserted to a locking state to be connected, which is a publicly-known example (refer to JP-A-2005-93149).
However, according to the cable attached plug connector “A” of the prior art, as shown in FIGS. 11B and 11C, a projected portion 102c is provided at a side face of the elastic claw 102 for preventing the elastic claw 102 from floating up, and a side face thereof is provided with a wall 105a for locking, and therefore, the elastic claw 102 can be prevented from floating up. However, the releasing press portion 102b on a rear side of the elastic claw 102 is not prevented from turning up at all. Therefore, the elastic claw 102 cannot be completely prevented from floating up.
Further, in order to ground the mold case 100 at the side face, the slit 101 is provided and the shield case 103 and the ground plate 111 are made to be brought into contact with each other, as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B, by notching to form the slit 101. However, a lower portion 104 of the mold case 100 may become damaged when in a case in which the cable attached plug connector “A” is caught thereby and cannot be smoothly inserted upon insertion of the cable attached plug connector “A” from the opening portion of the insulating member 109, the cable attached plug connector “A” is forcibly screwed in. Further, also in the retainer 105, there is a problem that when a rapid force is exerted to an opening edge portion thereof by the cable 106, the retainer 105 is opened and the retainer per se is damaged.